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The Amateur director says Laurence Fishburne improvised slapping Rami Malek: 'It was shocking'

'The Amateur' director James Hawes tells EW that Laurence Fishburne improvised slapping Rami Malek with no warning, and Malek says the 'aggressive' slap 'happened quite a few times' during filming.

Based on the novel by Robert Littell, the espionage thriller stars Malek as genius CIA decoder Charlie Heller, who embarks on a mission for revenge against the terrorists who killed his wife ( Rachel Brosnahan). Still, the duo's confrontation during training is a pivotal moment in Heller's transformation — and it turns out the scene was made even more impactful by Fishburne, who improvised the slap without warning Malek. "That scene felt so natural and easy to perform because a man of that talent and skill level was delivering those lines, and they hit with an impact that is even more aggressive than that slap."

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